Investigation and Prioritization of Railway Reconstruction Projects by Using Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach Case Study: Kerman and Southeastern Areas in Iranian Railways

Transportation development is one of the important goals of countries which is associated with economic and social development. Therefore, expanding the transportation infrastructure and construction has always been a key issue for managers in developed and developing countries. Due to the high costs of infrastructure projects in the transportation industry, especially railways as the safest and the most cost-effective mode of transportation, the financial resources must be managed with great sensitivity and precision. In current economic conditions, various methods have been proposed for decision-making in transportation infrastructure projects and prioritization of railway reconstruction projects. In this research, different decision models to prioritize transportation infrastructure projects are reviewed and according to the selected AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) model, railway reconstruction projects in Iranian railway networks are prioritized. In this regard, first, reconstruction projects have been reviewed from a technical and economic point of view, and then prioritization has been done according to the weight of effective criteria in the projects. In this study, important criteria for prioritization in terms of importance are considered as: Cost of Reconstruction, Train Speed Restriction, Allowable Speed, Railway Capacity, Traffic, Time, and Railway Track Quality. The effect of cost of reconstruction criterion is about 12 times greater than the time criterion and the output of the model showed that Jalalabad-Golezard block is the first priority for reconstruction in the area of Kerman and Southeastern in Iranian Railways.

Automated summary

This research reviews different decision models for determining the priority order of transportation infrastructure projects and uses the AHP model to prioritize railway reconstruction projects in the Iranian railway network. By considering criteria such as reconstruction cost, train speed restriction, allowable speed, railway capacity, traffic, time, and railway track quality, the Jalalabad-Golezard block in the Kerman and Southeastern regions of Iranian Railways was identified as the top priority for reconstruction.